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Emerging Trends
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Sawmills Market Cypress Online |
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For an industry that prides itself on personal relationships, the Internet has changed how a number of venerable cypress manufacturers do business. Several sawmills now send offering sheets and receive quote requests by email, and market their inventories via flashy websites, 24/7.
"Probably more than any other cypress supplier in the country we rely on the Internet," says Terry A. Wilson, Wilson Lumber Co., Memphis, Tn. "The reason is primarily because customers contact us looking for a product, not a commodity. We can provide the Internet customer with the cypress products he needs for his job, without having to buy a truckload of lumber. Through the Internet, he can buy it all in one place. We provide a service to the Internet market that others are unwilling to provide."
Coastal Lumber, Weldon, N.C., on the other hand, refers less-than-truckload inquiries to its remanufacturers and distributors. "It helps build our re-lationships with our customers," says Philip West. "They appreciate the leads."
Still, since the Internet is freely accessible to the general public, sites generate a fair share of worthless contacts. "I'd say 50% of it is aggravating, 50% of it generates some kind of value," West estimates. "We've gotten a lot of distribution requests and some new accounts from cold calls; maybe they were familiar with Coastal, but didn't know we carried cypress."
West concedes that the impersonal nature of electronic communications goes against the grain of the lumber industry. Yet, he's happy to serve customers how they're most comfortable. Coastal regularly both emails inventory offerings to customers and updates a linkable stock sheet on its website that customers can print off and fax in.
Other cypress manufacturers, such as Buchanan Lumber, Mobile, Al., use their site strictly as an informational vehicle, like a brochure. Dick Buchanan is considering upgrading his website to become a better marketing tool, but would not offer products for purchase online.
Mackeys Ferry Sawmill, Roper, N.C., only recently launched its own site and will soon add an inquiry page so prospective customers can ask questions about items in stock. The 48-year-old firm is gradually rolling out a marketing campaign, working with trade associations and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at The Uni-versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Star Program as its ad agency.
"It seems in this modern age a company can have capital infrastructure worth millions of dollars," muses Wilson Jones III. "They can make the finest, highest quality products using the best possible raw materials. They can spare no expense on the most advanced technology, but they don't seem to be validated until they get a website. It is a new and different way for us to think, but we see the need to venture from what was the status quo of years past and embrace the changes of the 21st Century."
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